0 thoughts on “Images tagged "rocks"

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  5. Chris Steel

    Hi Owen,

    Many moons ago circa 1982, I built an analogue sound operated trigger, basic stuff using a 555 timer and a home made microphone.
    The connectivity was a custom made push fit plug & socket (I can’t remember why I couldn’t use a bought one) low tech but very effective,
    I used it to burst balloons with, you can see the rip from the pin and the balloon collapsing but always with an outline.

    What will you be doing with this one, any ideas ?

    Chris

    Reply
  6. scooter

    Hi Chris – not sure yet. I would like to get some insects in flight next year, and may build a portable rig with 2 sensors crossed in front of the camera (will trigger the camera in this case, which will trigger 2 flash guns in turn etc). Maybe some balloons with flour, water etc inside and generally smashing things with hammers 🙂 I also saw some really cool shots somewhere of exploding veg 😀

    Reply
      1. scooter

        Very nice Chris – I’ve seen this approach used to get on owl in flight – they always take the same path apparentley so put a large frame in the way and they will fly through it. This one is a bit small at 10″ though – might work on bats though I think I’ll aim mine out to cross in front of the camera and chase the insects- no need for a frame. Might need to switch to a laser emitter/detector setup.

        Reply
  7. Phil Walker

    Here’s an idea Owen check out Tim Tadders water wigs just google water wigs. A bsolutely brilliant if you get the flash triggering right.
    Cheers,
    Phil

    Reply
    1. scooter

      Lovely:) bit like the milk dress shots everyone was doing a few months back. Biggest challenge must be for the model not to flinch 🙂 Taking and manipulating liquid splashes seems a big thing with advertising shooters. (see photigy.com )

      Reply
  8. Chris Steel

    Hi Owen,

    This is the lens you recommended to me when I bought the D700. For the most part it has and continues to do me proud, if there was one thing I could criticize it’s the combined weight of camera and lens. After a few hours of holding it up to the eye, especially shooting weddings, it becomes very heavy and once or twice I’ve suffered a lot of camera shake (even using the VR). This has led me to shoot in shutter priority with as you say auto ISO on, the down side of this has been a few noisy images when light levels have dropped – sometimes it matters others not. Again at weddings when shooting indoors it can be a problem, using flash as fill in light brings it’s own issues especially when there is just no time to set up and compose, you just have to crack on and take the shot. Thanks for the tip on the focusing, I’ll check the setup, I have definitely suffered the focus shuffle you mentioned.

    Here are a couple of my most recent shots taken with said lens (all medium jpegs);
    http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2878/10686116056_b12e57a1b7.jpg
    http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3830/10778403325_49c9914808_z.jpg
    http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3827/9336195319_ddce833ee0_z.jpg
    http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2817/9285837097_0060f83459_z.jpg
    http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8395/8613882460_0a16182d28_z.jpg

    For the most part they look reasonably sharp so I’m happy enough, any input you have would be welcome.

    Thanks,

    Chris

    Reply
  9. scooter

    Hey Chris – these look perfectly sharp to me – focus looks bang on. Yes, I guess it is pretty hefty, however it is no heavier than my 24-70 or 70-300 – although my arm was feeling it shooting for 6 hours at Cosford earlier in the year with the 70-300 on. I find perching the camera on your left shoulder can help

    Reply
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  11. Paul

    I have been wanting these lights ever since I seen them, still trying to get a budget up to get them so plodding along with my smart flash’s just now, great images and a nice read on the product.

    Reply
    1. scooter

      Hi Paul – the latest Smartflash II lights are very good for the money – and use the same triggers and modifiers (Bowens S fit) as the SuperFast – so you can mix them in later.

      Reply
  12. chris

    I am truly in awe, at this product shots professional treatment and comtrol of the glass subject matter.
    Excellent stuff Owen.

    Reply
  13. Phil Walker

    Hi Owen,
    Really nice read, this hotel has as good a location / view as the appropriately named View Hotel in Monument Valley where we stayed on our trip last Sept (2013). You mentioned cloning out some flair (and leaving some in for artistic effect) so I thought I’d share a tip I read recently regarding the removal of flare. You’re an intelligent guy so probably already know but I’ll tell you just in case you don’t, when I read it I wanted to slap myself as it’s so obvious once you know. With your camera on a tripod take your shot as normal then one with the same exposure but use a finger or thumb to cover the sun and thus eliminate said flare then use that shot on a layer with mask to paint in the non flare bit over the flare. Why didn’t I think of that? It works a treat.
    Cheers,
    Phil.

    Reply
    1. scooter

      Hi Phil – yes I have done this in the past and I even did it to a few of the frames at this location, however, when you’re shooting multiple bracketed frames, and the camera is way out in front in the water, it just starts to get a bit hit and miss as I couldn’t really look through the viewfinder to see where my thumb was. More often than not I was either not blocking the sun or getting my entire arm in the shot 🙂 So I gave up on that pretty quickly – it’s pretty easy these days to remove these things in post – either using the opposite colour on a brush in Lightroom, or deleting it in Photoshop. The thumb technique is better if you can reach the viewfinder to do it though 🙂

      Reply
  14. Ken Toogood

    Hi and thanks for a well presented and informative explanation of the supersync function, it’s just what I’ve been looking for.

    This is precisley the situation that I’ve been wanting to explore, mixing studio strobes with speedlights using my newly aquired Yongnuo TX and triggers.

    Perhaps you could clarify one point for me, you say that you can have one group of old strobes set to Supersync and another group of Speedlights set to TTL. How would you achieve this? Isn’t the Supersync function selected via the camera’s FP setting? How would you arrange different settings for different groups.

    Reply
    1. scooter

      Hi Ken – you don’t need to set anything on the camera for this to work (although the receivers will kick over into SuperSync or High Speed sync based on the x-sync speed you set in the menu). The Nikon flashes all think they are on the camera (Yongnuo doesn’t re-send the Nikon AWS communication over radio, they re-created the whole thing). This is why you need to set the Nikon CLS or compatible (eg Yongnuo YN5655 or YN568) to “on” rather than “remote”. Say you have group A (set to TTL or manual) and you have some Nikon SB900’s on YN622N receivers, and you have group B set to manual with a slow studio strobe on a YN622N receiver). If the shutter speed is within x-sync (say you have this set to 1/200th) both groups will fire normally according to the settings on the YN622N-TX. Of course, for the studio strobe, it’s just a trigger – the power setting on the YN622N-TX is not used, even though you can still set it on the display. If you push the shutter speed to say 1/2000th of a second, the SB900’s on group A will fire in High Speed Sync mode, and the studio strobe will be fired in SuperSync. The YN622N’s are clever enough to work out what it attached to them (ie whether here is a CLS compatible strobe attached to the hot-shoe or not). The indicator light is green for CLS compatible lights, and orange (I think – not 100% sure as I write this) for manual flash (whether that be manual hot-shoe gun or a studio strobe on the sync cord port). Hope this helps!

      OWen

      Reply
      1. Ken Toogood

        Owen,

        thanks for taking the time to reply, all is becoming clear. Your comment about Yongnuo not resending the AWS communication helps to explain some of the idiosyncrasies of the system.

        I’ve been having a play with my kit (Nikon D7000, YN622-TX, YN622N receivers, Yongnuo 568 and Nikon SB-700 speedlights) to try and become more familiar with their operation before I use them in anger and it has thrown up some observations and questions that perhaps you could comment on. Forgive me if I’ve strayed from the original Supersync topic a little bit.

        You say YN622N’s are clever enough to know what is attached to them and that the indicator light changes to reflect this. Green for CLS compatible lights. No matter how I set up my Speedlights I never get the green indication although they are definitely in iTTL mode and functioning correctly. If however I attach a YN622N to my camera as a transmitter the LED will change colour to indicate whether it is transmitting in manual or iTTL mode (orange or green)?

        I’m struggling a bit to understand the iTTL BL function so any explanation would be particularly appreciated. With my SB-700 mounted on the camera it will switch between iTTL BL and iTTL depending on the metering mode selected. All very logical and understandable. With the SB-700 off camera the only mode available (as far as I know) is iTTL. Is this Nikon in their wisdom telling me that no one in their right mind would want to use fill flash with the speedlight off camera or am I missing something?

        Using the YN622N-TX and the SB-700 off camera the speedlight will never give a iTTL BL indication although the TX does have a have a BL icon which displays correctly depending on the metering mode. So it appears that in this instance the speedlight isn’t completely fooled in thinking that it’s mounted on the camera. Not a problem but does this mean that I can use the BL function off camera when using the TX but not with the native CLS. i.e. the extra functionality is available because it thinks that it’s mounted on the camera? Or am I missing the point completely and should I forget about trying to use iTTL BL with an off camera speedlight?

        A small observation that might give an insight into the Yongnuo communication protocols and why I’ve seen it reported that the switch on sequence is important. If I have area metering selected on the camera the TX displays the “BL” icon. If I then change the mode to spot metering the icon doesn’t change UNTIL the TX sleeps and is woken or is switched off/on, it then disappears. It would be interesting to know if the mode has actually changed and it’s just the display that hasn’t refreshed?

        Regards and thanks for your help.

        Reply
  15. scooter

    I think you’re right Ken – balanced fill probably doesn’t make much sense when the light is off the camera as it could be behind the subject for example. Interesting that the BL will not appear when it’s mounted on a YN622N though – as the light should believe it’s on the camera. The YN622/TX uses the TTL mode on the light to recreate all the other modes – including manual mode, which seems backward, but it’s the only mode that allows the YN622N receiver to emulate a camera and control the power output – so it could well be that when you see “BL” on the TX, it really is shooting in BL – albeit Yongnuo’s version of it, as emulated using straight iTTL.

    I’ve not tried changing the metering mode while it’s all up and running. The flash or TX goes to sleep when the exposure meter times out, so if it only recognises the change when the meter times out and is brought back on again (by pressing the AE/shutter release etc) this could be a problem if you disabled the time-outs – which I do when shooting with an EyeFi card to relay jpegs, as that goes off as well when the meter shuts down which means the WiFi hot-spot it generates, vanishes… That said, I’ve never found the start up sequence to be important. It may be that I’ve just always switched them on in the right order. I regularly turn the camera off during a shoot and this doesn’t seem to matter. Pretty sure I’ve turned the TX off and back on again as well.

    I’ll have a play around when I get a moment. Incidentally, make sure you have the latest firmware on the TX – http://www.hkyongnuo.com/e-detaily.php?ID=339

    Reply
  16. Gabe

    Hi, I have a TX and 2 yn-622n receivers with SB-700. I also have a Nikon D5200 set to SPOT metering. When I turn the TX on, the BL indicator doesn’t show up, as expected. However, if the camera/TX go on standby/sleep mode, when they wake up by pressing the shutter button, the BL indicator appears on its own. Is this just a bug of the display or is BL mode now auto-enabled, irrespective of the camera settings? I don’t like BL, I find it unreliable, and I thought that by setting the camera to spot metering it would be disabled. Any help will be appreciated.

    Gabe

    Reply
    1. scooter

      Hi Gabe,

      there seem to be a couple of display bugs related to this. On my D800E it displays whatever mode it is in when started up in even when you switch exposure modes – eg you start up in full scene at it displays “BL” on the TX; you switch to spot metering and it still displays “BL” on the TX until the exposure meter times out and you re-awaken it by half pressing the shutter etc. However, it does always display the correct mode after the exposure meter times out and comes back on again. On my D5200, in addition to the above behaviour it does exactly as you describe: in spot metering, after the timeout and re-awaken, “BL” comes back. As far as I can tell though, it is not in balanced fill mode (which assumes the flash distance is the same as the shooting distance). I don’t know why it displays this, ever, regardless of metering mode – as the flash unit itself should not be in TTL-BL mode – just regular TTL, and off-camera, balanced fill just doesn’t make any sense, as the camera does not know where the flash is or what direction it is pointing. Firmware is now at 1.05, however it still behaves the same after the update

      Owen

      Reply
  17. chris

    I have also been pondering this digital iso trickery claim.
    Shooting in the midday Sicilian sunshine setting to aperture priority and dialling down the exposure compensation it seems the only use for this digital isolation is to control camera shake to allow faster shutter speeds while in aperture priority mode.

    On my D810 I notice a large degree of shift in sharpness hand held especially closing down the aperture past f10, so do I set the nikon to auto iso for best alround

    Reply
    1. scooter

      It’s not just the digital extensions Chris – the whole ISO thing doesn’t really seem to improve image quality that much over just taking the shot underexposed and dragging it up in post. You could get that high shutter speed you want in manual. The only use for it is to allow the auto exposure modes to work without extending exposure time to unworkable values, and so you can see the result on the monitor on the back of the camera. Knowing this doesn’t change how you shoot – sure: use auto ISO – it is marginally better than compensating after as you can see in the examples above, it; it’s just that the idea that higher ISO is doing something much better than just dragging the “exposure” slider in Lightroom is a myth.

      You will start to lose sharpness on a D810 past f/9 and a bit due to diffraction. Don’t stop down more than you really need to.

      Reply
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  19. Mandy Shaw

    Hi Owen

    Just wanted to say how much I love all these images.

    Do you do any teaching at all – either workshops or one on one?

    Reply
  20. Tony Meneses

    This is a fantastic help! I’m working on a novel use idea which is to use it to throw textures onto objects and synch with stereo photogrammetry capture. I’ve been using my PK lenses and a PK>Canon adapter. Still a work in progress.
    PS Love your galleries and especially liked your blog on portrait lens selection.

    Reply
    1. scooter

      Hey thanks Tony, and apologies – I only just saw your comment! Your project sounds really intriguing – would love to see some results!

      Reply
  21. Matthew Pitts

    Thanks for sharing, I am looking to make a shooting table like you. Are you able to share a link to the lighting wall plate you used? thanks

    Reply
  22. Frank Tucker

    Love this article.

    How well will designs created and printed from CorelDraw, Adobe Illustrated, or Photoshop work? Are there templates for these programs available or just use the ones described here?

    Reply
    1. scooter

      Hi Frank. I don’t think it really matters what software you use to make a pattern, and there are no templates as such – it’s a 35mm slide. Your issue will be cutting that pattern. There are services that will print an image to a 35mm slide and that’s the most straightforward way of making complex gobos. Tbh, if you want that sort of complexity, you may as well use a digital cine projector. This is where I ended up, for complex colour patterns – I make them in Photoshop and/or BorisFX Particle Illusion and save them to my phone – which I later connect to a projector on-set. I use the Lightblaster for simpler, graphic shapes I can cut with a knife out of card or Cinefoil (or just buy from Stage Depot). Stage Depot will also cut custom designs in sheet metal, but it is expensive.

      Reply